Have we met before?
by Pen Liddin
Summary: A Ryan Angst Story. There was a pause, and for a minute Sandy thought it might be over, then all of a sudden, there came a deafening yell. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he began to jog up to the house, this had to be stopped.
1. the Client

**Okay here I go with another Chino oneshot. Acctually...neither of them have been oneshots really...I just like that word. Anyhow, yes I may or may not continue this, who knows…I guess it depends on the feedback I get. Hint hint ;) ;) So I'm quite the fan of Ryan torture...or so I've heard it been called, so you'll probably see quite a bit of that in this story. Btw I dunno if Ryan's street name was ever given but for my sake I'm just gonna call it Burnett street for lack of a better name. Here goes…**

**Warnings- I have absolutely no idea where I'm going with this**

**Disclaimer- I own absolutely none of Josh swhartzes (or w/e) ideas**

**Ummmm- I didn't know what to label this. Anyway, just so whoever reads my stories knows…oooor for whoever's interested, im going to be coming out with a very long Ryan fic this summer with a bit of everything. I hope you'll read it! **

**Summary- Well I liked the idea of someone from Newport meeting Ryan differently but that's all I'm goin' on.**

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Sandy Cohen sighed and sunk down into his chair, he was definitely not having one of his better days. He'd had to meet two clients already, both of which were none to cooperative, not to mention the five and a half hours he'd had to drive. Sandy pinched the bridge of his nose and scanned over a recent file that had been dumped on his desk. Groaning heavily, he got to his feet again and rubbed his face. He still had one more client to visit before the days end, a client from Chino.

On the drive down, Sandy decided to call his wife to let her know that he wouldn't be making it home for dinner. After two rings someone picked up.

"Yes?" Sandy's son answered.

"Seth?"

"Yeah..."

"Where's your mother?" Sandy asked, confused.

"Ill give you one guess" Seth's voice was laced with sarcasm.

"Still at work then" Sandy replied, knowing all to well that Seth should have his parents home for dinner more then three times a week.

"Oh father, you dazzle me with your intelligence."

"I know son, listen, I'm gonna be held up at the office for a while so..."

Seth cut him off, "I can order my own dinner and sit alone in the den watching the original King Kong while anxiously awaiting a call from one of my many friends."

Sandy rolled his eyes and said goodbye to Seth with only the slightest hint of remorse in his voice.

A sign indicating his arrival in Chino flew by, as Sandy drove closer to his client's house. Sandy slowed down; he had been to Chino before for work, but not this neighborhood, so he didn't want to get lost. Once he had reached 24 Burnett street, Sandy parked the car on the side of the road and prepared himself as he always did before he met a client. He'd already gone over this kid's file before he'd left, and it didn't look like he was going to have too much trouble. The 16 year old had a few misdemeanors, and brushes with the law, but nothing that would look to bad in front of a judge in this town.

Sandy stepped out of the range rover, and squinted in the sun, just remembering to lock the doors. He had his brand new surf board stuffed in the trunk after all. Briefcase gripped firmly in his hand, he began his march past the gate and up to the front step, pausing slightly before knocking three times.

When the door was lurched open by a kid that looked like he was the older brother of his client, Sandy smiled warmly, only to receive a nasty glare in return. Sandy paused once more when he heard yelling coming from another room.

"Porqué? Cómo? cómo poder usted?"

"Mama, it wasn't my fault! We had no dinero! What are we supposed to do without money heh?"

Whom Sandy supposed was Mrs. Diaz replied harshly. "You could go to JAIL querido! It wasn't worth it!"

At this point, the Latino boy who had answered the door, led Sandy to the living room and beckoned for him to sit down. With that, the kid left the room to retrieve his mother and sister, who were still having a shout fest in the kitchen. When the family returned, Sandy stood up to shake his client's hand.

"You must be Theresa." He said calmly. The kid kept her head down and shook his hand nervously, avoiding his eye. Mrs. Diaz offered a tight smile, signaling that it was time to get down to business.

"Well Theresa, I'm not gonna tell yah what you did was right, cause it wasn't. Stealing money from a convenient store was stupid, and it was weak, and those are two things you can't afford to be right now. I do however, understand why you did it. Now I think if we play this right I can get your case down to another misdemeanor, but I'm not even going to try if the second I turn my back, you're just gonna go and do something like this all over again."

Mrs. Diaz glared at her daughter until she swallowed and nodded, which encouraged Sandy to continue.

"Okay so now that we've got that settled, let's get to it." Sandy hesitated and glanced up at Theresa's face.

"Erm… is it okay to ask where you got that black eye Theresa."

"Yeah" she replied, "I fell off my bike, banged my face on the fence post pretty hard."

Sandy sighed and returned to his paperwork. He knew a lie when he heard one, but he decided not to press the matter any further.

"So where were we?" He asked, perhaps a bit too cheerfully.

When Sandy emerged from the little house some two hours later, he figured that this case would be the toughest of the three. He walked through the dingy gate, noting that there were no fence posts, and wondered why good people always got the worse of things.

Sandy was in the midst of throwing his suitcase in the backseat when the house next door to Theresa's exploded in yelling and noise.

"You little fucker, I told you not to speak to your mother that way!" ,came the booming voice of an older man. Sandy cringed when he heard an unmistakable thud, accompanied by the sound of glass shattering. There was a pause, and for a minute Sandy thought it might be over, then all of a sudden, there came a deafening yell.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"

Adrenaline coursed through his veins as Sandy began to jog up to the house when that was followed by another thumping sound and a loud whimper of pain. Just as he was about to begin pounding the door with his fists, it burst open long enough for something to be tossed out, then it was slammed shut again. Sandy turned towards the figure crumpled in a ball in the walkway and took three large strides towards him. When he touched the kid's shoulder, sad blue eyes that were laced with pain, and almost hidden behind sandy blonde hair gazed up at him in confusion.

tbc

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**Yeah so there was the first chapter. umm yes...haha how many people thought the client was Ryan? cumon, i know some of you must have... so review, it makes me very happy! **

**p.s - i intend to make this quite an original story so look out for the next chapter. :) ..hmm didi hear someone story alert perhaps? **

**cheers,**

**Pen**


	2. Stumbling in the Dark

**Well I must say, t'was the reviews that inspired me to update so soon ;) So thanks to everyone for the encouragement I love it! Okay, so I'm sorry to say, I still don't know where this is going, it just kinda comes to me on the spot… but I intend to have much longer chapters. Yeah and I'm also gonna do different POV's later on, not just Sandy's… maybe even in this chapter, only my fingers can say. **

**Disclaimer- Hmm I dunno if I have to do this every chapter but what the hell, I own everything. Oh wait no… that's not true. I own nothing.**

**I forget the other little paragraph things I had so I guess it won't be a tradition I'm starting here…I'll just get on with the story. Enjoy!**

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As soon as Sandy locked eyeshim, the kidducked his head to avoid any contact, which resulted in a sharp gasp of pain. Panic rose in Sandy's throat, as he looked around desperately, wanting someone to call for an ambulance. He knew he couldn't just leave this kid lying on the grass alone.

Sandy felt his gaze fall back on the kid, taking in his injuries. It didn't look like there was any damage done that couldn't be fixed, he definitely had a broken wrist, judging by the swelling, his face was covered in bruises, as Sandy assumed his chest was as well, and it looked like someone had smashed a beer bottle on his temple.

"Hey kid… are you okay? Can you open your eyes for me?" Sandy asked gently.

Without saying a word, he grimaced painfully and opened his eyes, revealing fear written all over them. Sandy was about to say something comforting, when he glanced back and noticed that the boy's eyes didn't give anything away anymore. He wondered if they ever had, or if his mind was just playing tricks on him. No, Sandy thought, this kid had just put on a cover.

Sandy was so deep in thought that he nearly jumped ten feet when the kid started to speak hoarsely.

"What were you doing at Theresa's."

At first Sandy didn't even understand the question, no, the accusation. Who was Theresa? After taking a minute to mull that over, he realized the kid must've seen him go in to the house or something. But why, of all things was he asking this when he was lying on his front lawn bleeding, just having been beaten by his father. Sandy sighed and decided to reply truthfully.

"Theresa got into some trouble with the law kid, she needed a lawyer. But forget about that now, what the hell just happened? What's your name?"

The boy began to process the information before looking up at Sandy with wide eyes. The fear seemed to return for a brief second again, before disappearing once more behind his cover.

"You… you're a lawyer?" He asked hesitantly.

Sandy was beginning to get frustrated. He needed to know exactly what had just happened, so he could report it to child services.

"Yes I am, and I need to know what just happened. What's your name?" He asked for the second time. The kid ducked his head again and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, I'm fine.

From what Sandy could see through the kid's ruffled blonde hair, he had reverted back to a stony gaze on his wrist. Sandy grimaced, that probably really hurt. Sandy had never felt so helpless, he had no idea what he should do.

Without warning, the kid stood up.

"I gotta go." He said. Glancing back at Sandy he added, "Thanks" before walking away slowly, and painfully.

Sandy could tell that the kid was having a hard time just staying on his feet, let alone making the long trek back to his house. When he stopped suddenly and began to sway violently, Sandy was on his feet, ready to help if the kid should collapse. He was half way there, when the boy started walking again, and Sandy figured he should let him go. He obviously didn't want any help, and despite Sandy's annoying need to do just that, he knew that if he pushed to hard, it would only make matters worse.

With much regret, Sandy turned his back and began walking back to his car, deep in thought. He was _not_ going to let this go. If he knew anything about himself, one way or another, he was going to figure out what happened, and help this kid, whether he wanted his help or not. Obviously, he knew this kind of thing happened all the time, but this was the first time he'd had a front row seat and frankly, it was shocking. How could someone do that to a kid? Probably no older then eighteen!

Anger began to make its way into Sandy's thoughts, until it took over completely about halfway home. He was angry that people like Theresa, who don't deserve to live like that, are forced to steal to provide money for their family, why? There is absolutely no reason at all.

He was angry because people all over Chino, all over the world really, were unfair. Whatever it was that the kid did, and Sandy was sure it wasn't anything big, he did _not_ deserve to get beaten. Child abuse was cruel, and no matter what, Sandy was going to save this kid with whatever it took. The more he thought about it, the more sure of himself he became, and by the time he got home, he was dead set on what he was planning on doing.

The sight of the huge Cohen mansion didn't improve Sandy's mood, as he scowled and trudged up to the Victorian designed entranceway.

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Once Ryan Attwood was safely around the corner, and he was sure that the lawyer had driven away completely, he collapsed back against the gritty wall of the side of his house, and concentrated on breathing evenly. Ryan slid down slowly, until he was sitting slumped against the wall comfortably.

Ryan closed his eyes for a second as he thought about what he was going to do. He knew that this probably wasn't the last he was going to see of the lawyer, and he just hoped that it wouldn't cause to much trouble. God, why'd he always have to pick fights with A.J? He knew nothing good ever came of it.

Ryan decided that he should go see Theresa to see if she was okay, but found that he couldn't stand up again.

"Shit" He breathed, feeling the full damage on his body from his fight with A.J. Ryan noted that it was probably his wrist that hurt the most, from when the huge man had crippled it against the edge of the counter. He also noted that it was pretty hard to breathe, and that his head felt like it was pulsing. Wow, I must look pretty hot. He thought to himself sarcastically.

Ryan groaned sluggishly and raised his left hand up to his face, wincing and drawing in a sharp intake of breath when he felt a soft spot around his eye. Jesus this guy could throw a punch.

Ryan held his breath as he let his fingers inspect the rest of his face, to make sure there wasn't anything to bad. He paused when he felt something wet on his temple, followed by what felt like glass.

"Good going Attwood." He muttered to himself, suddenly swept over with a waveof dizziness and a side splitting headache. A distant part of his mind knew that he should probably get the piece of glass out of his head somehow, but unfortunately for him, the stronger and more sleepy part of his mind took over.

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"Shutup man, you're gunna wake my mum and Theresa!" Arturo Diaz hissed at his dumbass friend, who had just stumbled over two garbage cans in the midst of walking up the driveway. Trey just squinted up at Art in the dark, and gave a hearty chuckle.

"Shit Art," he said, "You really gotta move in with meee in the- inMY apartment!" He slurred, drunkenly. "You don't hafta worry bout that kinda bull"

"It's not bull Trey, I gotta be here for my family. Were you even listening to me before man? Theresa might go to jail cause she STOLE, Trey. She stole money from a convenient store. Theresa." Arturo replied defensively, shaking his head to himself almost in disbelief.

"CRAP!" Trey yelled, when his shoe fell off. He bent down to pick it up, only succeeding to stumble on the trash cans again.

"Get out of my way!" He yelled at them, followed by a swift kick which made a dent and quite a loud noise.

"God dammit Trey I said shutup! Jesus, I knew this wasn't a good idea. It's three o'clock in the morning!" Arturo said, grabbing his drunk friend by the collar and hauling him away from the garbage cans.

"You gotta go home man." He said. When Trey rolled his eyes and turned towards the car to depart, Art stopped him.

"Are you kidding me?" He asked. "There's no way in hell I'm lettin' you drive tonight. You're just gunna hafta go to your house. The one next door Trey, not your apartment." When Art's suggestion was met by a scowl, the Latino boy quickly opened the door to Trey's, well not exactly Trey's... but the car, and grabbed the keys.

"Go home." He ordered.

"C'mon man!" Trey pleaded, "You… know I can't go home like this! They'll KNOW!"

When Art reached for Trey's arm to guide him through the back gate and to his house, Trey jerked away quickly.

"Donnn touch me!" He shot at his friend, stumbling towards the gate and groping around for the latch. "Where the fuck is it..." He muttered to himself.

As Art watched Trey Attwood fall into his yard, he felt a tinge of guilt, praying nothing really did happened to him when his mom and her boyfriend saw him drunk like that.

Trey stopped for a minute once he had entered his yard. Even drunk, he knew enough to be as quiet as possible when going inside the Atwood household at this time of night. He weighed his options, and decided that the side door would be the best way to go. The front door always made the loudest creak every time you opened it.

The cool brick of the side of Trey's house met his fingers as he reached forward to feel his way to the door, seeing as he could barely see his hand in front of his face. Trey made his way to the door slowly, keeping one hand on the wall and one out in front of him incase he fell.

This technique proved to work considerably well, until Trey felt himself trip over something on the ground and fall flat on his face.

"Shit!" He yelled, only just remembering afterwards that he wasn't supposed to yell. After waiting until everything stopped spinning, and rubbing his sore forehead, Trey began to crawl towards the wall blindly, planning on using it to help himself up again.

"What the hell?" He whispered when his hand met something solid, that he was pretty sure wasn't the wall.

"Ooooh yeah..." Trey mused, remembering that there had been something he'd tripped over. But the question was, what the hell is it? After a few minutes of feeling the mysterious object, Trey realized that it was a shoe.

"What the hell?" He said for the second time, forgetting to whisper again. After a few minutes of complete confusion, Trey realized that there was a foot in the shoe. His sober self told him to forget about it, and focus on getting inside, but once again, curiosity mixed with liquor got the better of him, and Trey crawled forward some more beside the figure, until he smoked his head on the wall.

"Riiight" Trey sighed. He'd forgotten about the wall.

Trey squinted in the dark again, his eyes growing a bit more accustomed to the light. Or lack thereof in this case. After a few minutes, he realized that the figure was in fact a person.

"Ry?" Trey asked, confused. "What the hell man, what are you doing out here?" When there was no answer from his little brother, Trey sat down beside him clumsily. He sighed, realizing that his brother was unconscious, he could only guess how that had happened.

If Trey knew one thing for sure, it was that he had to get himself and Ryan safely inside the house, without waking up either of the adults inside.

One would assume this was a simple task, but when it's 3 in the morning, you've had 8 shots and 2 coolers, and you have to carry an unconscious 16 year old up some stairs and through a door without making a sound, the task becomes a little more complicated.

The older Attwood made his way to Ryan's right side, the side closest to the door, and grabbed his wrist in the attempt to pull him up to a standing position. As soon as Trey gave the wrist a yank to try to pull his heavy brother up, a deafening yelp of pain escaped Ryan's lips, as he flinched and recoiled, his eyes jerking open widely. He seemed to shrink down in pain, not registering what was going on until he heard Trey speak.

"Ryan! What are you doing?" Trey almost shouted, panic rising in his throat. He was still squinting at his brother when something out of the corner of his eye made him glance up briefly. Something in Trey's muddled brain clicked when he lifted his eyes slowly.

The lights in the house had turned on.

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TBC

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**Whew, so what did you think of chapter two? Was Trey's discovery of Ryan too long/drawn out? Is Ryan gunna have to go to the hopspital? What are Dawn and A.J going to do? When shall we hear some Seth comedy? Will Theresa go to jail? Will Sandy help Ryan, or just make matters worse? Do you think the chapters should be longer?**

**Hang in there, and keep in mind that slowly but surely, each character in the OC will make an appearance. Whether its permanent or not, only time will tell. **

**Reviews equal a happy me **

**A happy me equals a MUCH quicker update **

**A much quicker update equals a happy you… (I hope) **

**Cheers, **

**Pen **


	3. Delaying the Inevitable

**Guess why I updated so soon? But really, thank you soo much everybody that reviewed, I learned some stuff. Like, I had no idea my story was different, and you know what? That makes me happy. And you know what else? It makes me wanna try even harder to write a good story! So thanks for the encouragement. Yeah so this chapters a bit of a break, don't worry the next one will be better. More action you know? … **

**Disclaimer- … I'm running out of witty comments for this thing! I'm kidding don't worry, I know I'm not funny. My mom says I am though! …kidding again, although that probably wasn't funny… anyway yeah I don't own jack. Meaning I own nothing if you don't know…what that means. I'll shutup. Wait.. I probably should've waited a few more chapters before I put that I'm running out of comments after only two…its kind of sad… **

**Enough said? Yes I think so, you can read now. **

**Delaying the Inevitable **

"Oh shit Ry! Why the hell did you yell that loud you dumbass! Now you've gotten us both caught!" Ryan vaguely heard somebody's muffled accusation.

Everything around him was black and he felt like he was going to throw up. He didn't know who was rambling about yelling, and he had no idea where he was or what on earth was going on. All Ryan felt was the severe pain which seemed to be coming mostly from his wrist, and a little from his head and chest.

The voice suddenly stopped, but Ryan began to hear other noises coming from behind him, if not distant and muffled as well.

All of a sudden, as Ryan was in the middle of wondering why he couldn't see, he felt something grab him around the waist and haul him onto his feet. This sudden movement proved to be a very bad idea, as Ryan found out when he was swept over by a wave of dizziness and lurched forward onto his knees. His eyes grew wide as the inevitable finally arrived, and Ryan let out a stream of vomit.

The voice came back in full tilt, filling Ryan's ears so that was all he could hear, as he was pulled, yet again, to his feet. He felt a soft groan escape his lips when he felt a hand on his back, forcing him forwards. Why was this person doing this? All he wanted was to go back to sleep!

Ryan heard some definite cursing as he was shoved a second time, causing him to stumble into a slow jog. He could remember thinking that that probably didn't help his condition, but at the moment he was to concerned with the fact that he still couldn't see, to give it more then a quick thought.

Feeling that his stomach was about to make another objection, Ryan knew he had to stop moving, but found it increasingly difficult with that annoying hand stopping him from doing just so. Ryan however, was in luck because just at that moment, his foot snagged on well, he didn't know what, he just knew how much it hurt his head when he came crashing down onto the ground, bringing the annoying hand with him. Searing pain escaped from his head as he lay there on the ground dazed, for awhile, thinking he should really get back to fixing that piece of glass problem.

From out of nowhere, Ryan began hearing voices that he was pretty sure wasn't the one attached to the annoying hand.

"RYAN I heard you out here! You'd better believe I'll find you and you're gonna be sorry!"

"A.J don't! We SAW him go into his room! Don't you remember?"

"No we didn't you idiot! He never came back!" There was no reply for awhile, and Ryan assumed Dawn was thinking over if she had seen him or not, which she obviously hadn't.

"I know you're hiding you little shit! Don't think I'm gonna come lookin' for yah but you will have to come back sooner or later, and trust me, you'll be sorry for waking us up! You're mother has been very tired"

Ryan, who had come more or less to his senses in the past few minutes was seething with anger. He knew the A.J didn't give a shit if Dawn was tired or not, he just wanted another reason to kick his ass.

Ryan rolled onto his back and let out a sigh, still pretty much in a lot of pain at this point. He lay there motionless, until he heard what sounded like a door slamming. After, give or take a few more minutes had passed, Ryan heard the unmistakable sound of hysterical laughter.

Very confused at this point, he slowly shifted himself over until he was facing the direction of the noise.

"Trey?" He asked, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Hahaha jesus Ry you should see… YOU haha, you didn't know whaaaat was going on!" Trey replied between bursts of laughter.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you even here?"

"WHAT is wrong with YOU little bro!" Trey scoffed. Ryan rolled his eyes, yep, Trey was drunk. That was exactly what he needed right now. He sighed again and made an attempt to get up and look around where they were. He squinted, his head reeling; it looked like they were in Theresa's backyard. Now he really didn't know what to do, he didn't even want to think of what time it was and he definitely didn't want to wake the whole family up.

"Aww Ry, what the hell?" Trey moaned from the ground. "You PUKED on my SHOES!"

Ryan glanced back down at Trey, and gave a sarcastic chuckle, his brother had passed out. He turned his attention back up to Theresa's window, and bent down to pick up a rock. His head didn't seem to like this movement, because when he stood back up it proved it's point by taking away his vision and sending him another wave of dizziness. Once he'd regained his balance again, Ryan took aim, and threw the rock at the window, hoping Theresa would wake up.

"Dammit!" He cursed under his breath when he missed. There was no way he'd be using his right arm, which was still throbbing painfully, so Ryan tried again with his left. This time he heard a satisfactory clink when the rock hit the glass, although there was still no sign of life coming from Theresa. It took five more tries including two more misses until Ryan saw her sleepy head pop up to the window.

"Ryan?"

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"What is it?" Kirsten Cohen murmured to her husband, who had just woken her up in the middle of the night.

Sandy looked at his wife, who still had her head buried in her pillow and was obviously not quite awake yet. He however, felt as if he would never get to bed, and found himself pacing back and forth across their bedroom floor.

"It's just…" He started, then thought better of it and decided to forget it. This was not Kirsten's problem. "Never mind honey, I'm really sorry for waking you, go back to sleep."

Sandy smiled to himself when he saw that Kirsten was already snoring softly. Her father had been working her too hard lately, and he figured that she needed all the rest she could get.

Instead of getting back into bed with his wife and trying to sleep again, Sandy figured it would be best if he went down stairs and crashed in front of the TV.

He shoved his feat into his slippers and padded the rest of the way to the kitchen, figuring he'll get something to eat before making his way to the living room.

Even when he was sitting comfortably on the couch, watching some soap opera and munching on Cheetos, Sandy still couldn't get his mind off the kid he'd run into earlier that day. He knew that he was going to help him, he'd figured that part out already, but what was he going to do? That was the real question wasn't it. There was always the option of reporting the incident to child services, but what good would that really do. They were always willing to turn a blind eye if the family did a good cover up, and even if that kid wasn't able to fool them, would he be happier being property of the government? This revelation brought Sandy back to his previous thoughts. Was there a point in even trying? What if this kid was about to turn eighteen and was going to move out in a few weeks or so. He knew it wasn't that simple though… it's not like come his birthday the kid would be able to jump up and move out. He'd need money for that.

That thought had crossed Sandy's mind before as well, but he just couldn't think of a subtle way to offer money. Hiring him for lawn mowing or what not would do no good, they lived to far away. Slipping the money under his door probably wouldn't work either, Sandy was pretty sure Ryan wouldn't see one penny of it if he did it that way.

Sandy wasn't even sure if Kirsten would let him give up their money… and how much was he even planning to give? This thought made him even angrier. How is it fair that his family was allowed to live like this, in a huge mansion with a loving family, when there are people everywhere just like that kid. Sandy felt like kicking something.

Suddenly a thought occurred to him. It was the first thing the kid had said, "What were you doing at Theresa's?" Sandy realized that maybe he could get Theresa to help him give Ryan some money! He cringed when he remembered that Theresa was supposed to be the one he was helping. Not the mysterious kid. Theresa was his client. Sandy wouldn't forget any of this though, no, he wouldn't forget it.

xxxx

He didn't know when or if he'd fallen asleep, but Sandy drew a huge blank as to when the sun had decided to show itself, so he figured it had been sometime around four o'clock. He opened his eyes to the sound of an infomercial about inflatable bras, and movement coming from the kitchen.

When he heard a noise behind him, he turned around to see his son, Seth, shuffling past the couch. Seth didn't seem to realize Sandy was there until he was halfway past the scene, when he paused, took in Sandy in boxers and a t-shirt, the inappropriate television show, rolled his eyes and continued his shuffling. As Sandy settled himself back into the cushions on the couch he heard Seth's distinct voice coming from the kitchen.

"Mom, why is dad watching an infomercial about bras?"

It was Sandy's turn to roll his eyes as he struggled up from the couch and went to join his family for breakfast, a rare occurrence in this household. He entered the room to the sound of Seth babbling.

"It's okay if you don't want to tell me mom, I just figured you and dad were in a fight since he was sleeping on the couch! That is what he was doing right? Am I right? I thought so. Come on mom if you can't tell me then who can you tell, plus I myself am quite skilled in the ways of advice and what not, just like Yodda from Star wars, although that's very clichéd isn't it? Okay, more like Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings then! Enlighten me mother!"

Kirsten smiled up at Sandy from her coffee. "Morning sweetie"

"Oh so you guys aren't in a fight then? So dad why were you sleeping on the couch? Wait, don't answer that I probably don't want to know. Okay fine I really do, why were you sleeping on the couch?"

"Kirsten, could you pass the cream cheese please?" Sandy asked his wife, smirking after taking a tentative sip of his seething hot coffee. He then began spreading the cream over his crispy bagel.

"Oh so I'm just invisible then aren't I? Absolutely nobody even acknowledges…" Seth paused when he noticed both his parents were doubled up with silent laughter.

"Ha ha, you guys are just sooo hilarious, really you can't tell right now, but I'm actually laughing really hard inside, cause you're both just so funny!" Seth commented sarcastically. Kirsten, having drained the rest of her coffee stood up from the table and kissed Seth on the forehead, turning to kiss Sandy after.

Kirsten was just about to leave for work, when Seth piped up,

"Oh yeah, wait, by the way mom before you go to work, do you think you could pick up that playstation game I wrote down for you? The Ninja one?" Kirsten smiled and was about to head out the door when Sandy began yelling.

"Seth you already have at least 50 playstation games about Ninjas! Can we just give it a rest and appreciate what we have!" Both Seth and Kirsten turned towards Sandy, shocked by his outburst. Seth leaned his head towards Kirsten, still eyeing Sandy and whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Mom, I think dad's having mood swings…"

Sandy shot Seth a warning look, and noticed his son was still in his pyjamas.

"And aren't you late for school?" He asked. Seth just shifted his gaze to his mom then back again.

"Umm… dad… it's Saturday…"

For a minute it looked like Sandy was thinking that over, then he turned to Kirsten.

"And _why_ are you working on a Saturday?" He scolded. "It's not like we need _more _money Kirsten!"

" Sandy… it's nothing; my Dad just needed me to go over something before he handed it in to some buyers."

"Oh yeah, I should've known it was your father." Sandy replied bitterly.

"And what is _that _supposed to mean Sandy!" Kirsten practically shouted back.

"HA!" Seth yelled, "I KNEW it! You guys _are _fighting!" Both parents turned simultaneously towards Seth and gave him the death glare.

"Leaving now." He said before bouncing off down the hall and out of sight.

"Look Sandy," Kirsten continued as if there was no interruption. "Can we please just continue this conversation later? My dad's waiting for me." Rather then arguing, Sandy just muttered something inaudible and turned his back, walking towards the garage. Normally he wouldn't have avoided this topic so hastily, but Sandy figured it was best to let himself cool off a bit first before engaging in the argument.

Before he knew it, Sandy found himself trudging down towards the beach with his surf board tucked under his arm.

------

The weekend passed without any interesting occurrences, much to the distress of Seth, and without warning, it was Monday. Much to the distress of Seth.

Sandy was regretful that he didn't get a chance to talk to Kirsten about their argument, but then, it was a very relaxing weekend, and he didn't want to be the one to ruin it. Sandy let out a sigh and glanced around as he poured his coffee. The house was empty yet again.

He'd pretty much already won two of his three cases, the two from Fresno, so he wouldn't be visiting them today. It was Theresa that Sandy was worried about. She would be lucky if he could get her sentence down to a few months in Juvie. Sandy sighed again, why did bad things always happen to good people?

Sandy placed his coffee mug in the cup holder of his car and turned the ignition.

Today he would be paying Chino another visit.

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**And so passes chapter three. I hope you enjoyed it, cause I didn't. Or am I not supposed to say that? Anyway, I figured I had to get that out of the way, so the next chapter will be extra kick ass. Much action, drama, angst and what not. I think the next couple chapters will be mostly ** **Chino****, I think. Hmmm not much to say today… only … review? yaaaay so yeah tell me what you think, I havent started chapter four yet, but I acctually have an Idea of what it might be about :O :O those are shocked smileys if you're wondering. **

**I've wrote to much. **

**I'll leave you to review then shall I? **

**…if you want **

**…but I know you know you do… **

**…and I know you know I know you do. **

**Cheers, **

**Pen **


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